Thread: New Tikka .308 zeroing issues

Time for an update @JimmyJames A lot of people have tried to help. Let them know if you have made any progress with your problem.

Originally Posted by rossi.45

allowing the rifle to free recoil without holding the forend just seems so wrong to me . . it can work but a natural hold and follow thru i see as good repeatable techneque.

what i find interesting in this problem is the results are fine at 100 but go to hell at 200, so we know the rifle and shooter are both working fine at short range.
as to 200 being a long way and being difficult i find that a non issue, its not hard, there is something else at play here.

awhile ago i took a guy out to sight in his new tikka .308 with the intention of going out to 500nyards . . now this guy is a crap field shooter, absolutely hopeless, but he wanted to try LR.
we used the legs of jeans cut off and filled with sand and shot off the bonnet off the ute. The forend was supported by the left hand on a sandbag and a sandbag under the trigger hand . . i got him lined up with good body position and we had at it.
at 100, 200, 300, 400 he was grouping roughly 1.5 MOA . . then he had a great idea, he would change the way he held the rifle and body position . . the groups more than doubled in size and went hard left.
the obvious was techneque but also i beleive he was tired by the end . . the .308 is not a kicker but to someone new to the game, the concentration and recoil add up. Also he had to be home at a certain time so pushed things along, all n all a bad combination.

so my 2c is go with sandbags, good body position, good follow thru and take your time . . leave the bipod at home, do some warmup shooting with a .22 first . . do not rush, enjoy every part of the what your doing, if your not enjoying it your doing something wrong and you need to look at the why.

then again it could be the scope . . a saying from a BenchRest shooter " there are more barrells replaced because of faulty scopes "

good luck

an update on the young rascal i took out . . got a phone call from him last night, he was happy as a Sandman.

he put a DPT suppressor on his rifle . . noise & recoil reduction he said was a great help.
sometimes us older shooters dont take into account how much that effects novice shooters and they wont tell you how uncomfortable they are.
made a sand bag to rest across
i sold him my 1200 Leica RF so he had that to range with
he has spent some time working out Strelok
took his time to get good body position, follow thru
he shot reasonable groups allowing the barrel to cool at 100, 200, 300, 400 yards
knocked a Rabbit over at 350 yards later in the evening . . he's ready to move past his usual 200 yards.

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

And keep you hand off the foreend when you're shooting from a rest. That Ballistic studies guy doesnt know what hes talking about.

i am an oldie, set in my ways . . . but willing to give anything a go
maybe i am wrong . . anyhoo
this evening i decided i would let my rifle a .204 Ruger No. 1 free recoil when checking my zero . . i often check POI
its a No brainer to me . . check everything, scope, ammo, you . . . get in the zone .
Well fck me . . free recoil worked with this caliber, with this shooter / rifle . . i had a sucessfull results.

would i do the same with a .308 etc . . not sure . . but i wouldnt say No

Well done Rossi.45.Just let the rifle do its natural thing.Some days i put the first 2 bullets in the one hole from 1st to second cold bore shots,then go home.Generally i only to go to the range for setting up or checking a new scope.Then dont bother with the range for a few months.Just shoot a rabbit at good distance now and then.I know the 308 on song.

cheers @Trout i wouldnt have tried it if you hadnt mentioned it in this thread.

i will keep using it with the .204 Ruger . . its perfect for how i shoot with this rifle, No bipod, off the day pack only.

R.

my wee .223 has always been an easy rifle to shoot well. recently I got all fancy and made a crude stock for it out of super light timber kindly supplied by c-dog....yes it works well,awesome to carry BUT....I dont shoot ASWELL as with the walnut stock...if I hold it tight,no worries,if I go loosey goosey I miss. its made an easy to shoot rifle into one I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT TECHNIQUE WITH...so came home and switched back to walnut ....

What ever suits you MD as long as the game drops.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

my wee .223 has always been an easy rifle to shoot well. recently I got all fancy and made a crude stock for it out of super light timber kindly supplied by c-dog....yes it works well,awesome to carry BUT....I dont shoot ASWELL as with the walnut stock...if I hold it tight,no worries,if I go loosey goosey I miss. its made an easy to shoot rifle into one I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT TECHNIQUE WITH...so came home and switched back to walnut ....

You're bit optimistic calling that thing a stock!

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

And keep you hand off the foreend when you're shooting from a rest. That Ballistic studies guy doesnt know what hes talking about.

@JohnDuxbury , I was taught to and have been using sling wrap and hold the fore end for about 40yrs, off hand and over a pack or without, over sandbags, leaning on corners ect ect, you reckon everything I've shot's coming back to get me?, I reckon not. Weather I actually agree with Nathen Foster or not, fact is, his whole life is about shooting based knowledge, am curious, what are your credentials to "peer review" him?, particularly so dismissively?

Hi team. While we're all on the edge of out seats waiting for news on how @JimmyJames got on with his wandering shots, I noted above some people talking about breaking in a barrel. Everyone has their own rituals and practices, which is cool, but I know feck all about lots of things. On my hunt for info on breaking in a new barrel which I was told you must do, I saw this video from an American gent who obviously knows lots about firearms, and his explanation makes a lot of sense. Do yourselves a favour and set the playback speed to x1.5 or x1.75 to save a little time... it's a long'un. He has heaps of very informative and very enjoyable vids on all sorts of topics - some good ones on improving accuracy too... which may be relevant here. Enjoy!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCIi-SklcP8

That guy has a lot of good info, but none of his vids are short!

Originally Posted by 257weatherby

@JohnDuxbury , I was taught to and have been using sling wrap and hold the fore end for about 40yrs, off hand and over a pack or without, over sandbags, leaning on corners ect ect, you reckon everything I've shot's coming back to get me?, I reckon not. Weather I actually agree with Nathen Foster or not, fact is, his whole life is about shooting based knowledge, am curious, what are your credentials to "peer review" him?, particularly so dismissively?

I agree, Nathan is all about hunting and field work. What Nathan emphasizes is to 'be consistent'. More than 50% of the animals I have taken have been offhand shots, so I have to hold the forend. Supported shots can be any kind of rest so again I hold the forend. For target stuff John D is likely correct, for example the Houston Warehouse shooters found that having the rifle untouched by human hand except the trigger, produced the best groups, but that free recoil stuff wont work for hunting .

to me looking at the video it took 1m 24s to say just get out and shoot it . . the rest is interesting but as said takes awhile.
But his method is not going to work, most people want some kind of magic, religious cermony ya have to do . . fire a shot say hail mary etc etc
That way you have the keepers of the knowledge who pass on the info magic . . the seekers of the knowledge then become part of the cult when its passed to them, on forums like this, then they pass it on . . maybe they add a twist of put your left hand on your head and do 2 circles.
i use the throw some salt over your left shoulder between shots . . but mines science based and proven by experts.

happy days . . R

Originally Posted by 257weatherby

@JohnDuxbury , I was taught to and have been using sling wrap and hold the fore end for about 40yrs, off hand and over a pack or without, over sandbags, leaning on corners ect ect, you reckon everything I've shot's coming back to get me?, I reckon not. Weather I actually agree with Nathen Foster or not, fact is, his whole life is about shooting based knowledge, am curious, what are your credentials to "peer review" him?, particularly so dismissively?

I used to shoot in the military, I have shot competitively, and I have shot more deer than he has. If you need anymore than that you can fuck off.

For me, shooting off a bench with front and rear bags, or prone with a bipod, I find I am a lot steadier and more comfortable with my non-trigger hand holding the rear bag and/or base of stock.
I realise I probably have a different point of impact when holding the fore end, but as most of my hunting shots are only 10-25% of my zero distance it doesn't matter much!